SANDWICH — Chaz Thomas walked onto the wrestling mat at the open meet at Sandwich Middle High School on Saturday, Dec. 14 and greeted his opponent. “He’s probably the strongest one on the team,” a nearby fan said. “He’s a sophomore.”
Thomas, who stands six feet tall, wrestles in the 175-pound class for Nauset Regional High School. He’s about the same size as his coach, James Rosato, which means that Thomas is often the one Rosato uses to demonstrate techniques during practice. Thomas describes his wrestling style as “athletic and agile.”
Thomas is one of five Nauset wrestlers who attend Cape Cod Regional Technical High School in Harwich. The Tech doesn’t have a wrestling team, so Thomas joins Nauset for practices and meets alongside sophomore Michael Banks and freshmen Chase Augusta, Chris Cohan, and Kimberly Rescigno.
“A lot of kids from Tech would like to have a wrestling team,” Thomas says. “I think every school should have the chance to have a wrestling team, because it’s one of the greatest sports there is.”
Thomas says he got into wrestling because he wanted to have a skill that would last his whole life. “Being able to defend myself and do all these athletic things is better than something like basketball,” he says.
Last year, Thomas was the only Tech student on the Nauset team. This year he recruited Michael Banks. The other three joined on their own.
“This year we’ve got a big group — 21 kids — and we’re getting more and more from the Tech each year,” says Thomas. “It’s great.” Last year, the team had 12 wrestlers, up from 9 the year before.
But the Warriors are still missing wrestlers in several weight classes and had to forfeit many of the individual matches at Saturday’s meet.
Rosato says that he focuses more on individual results than team performance, which he often doesn’t track at all. Thomas won three of his four matches on Saturday. Two of those — against wrestlers from Martha’s Vineyard and South Shore — were by pin. He beat his Sandwich opponent by a whopping 15 points, and his loss, against Tri-County, was by a single point.
High school wrestling is scored with a point system: a takedown is worth 3 points, a reversal is worth 2 points, and standing after a takedown is worth 1 point. Getting an opponent’s back on the mat can be worth anywhere from 2 to 4 points.
The match, with three two-minute rounds, automatically ends when a wrestler is pinned — that’s when the shoulder blades touch the mat for three consecutive seconds.
The winning wrestler earns points for the team. A pin is worth 6 points while wins by decision are worth 3 to 5. An individual point discrepancy of 15 or more — like Thomas had against Sandwich — counts as a technical takedown and is worth 5 team points.
A recent rule change raised the value of a takedown from 2 to 3 points to align with college scoring. That means simply throwing an opponent to the ground over and over is a viable strategy.
“You’ll see kids take someone down, cut them loose, then take them down again,” says Rosato.
That’s how Thomas got his win against Sandwich on Saturday: pushing his opponent over, letting him get up, then pushing him over again. “It was a bit of a mismatch,” Rosato says.
For some wrestlers, it’s more of an uphill battle. Kim Rescigno, who is new to wrestling this year, won only one of her four matches — against Martha’s Vineyard, by a pin.
Like her coach, Rescigno has a background in jiujitsu, which she learned from her father. Both jiujitsu and wrestling are grappling sports, so they involve similar skills, Rescigno says, but the rules of wrestling can make the transition difficult.
“You can’t pull guard in wrestling,” she says, referring to a jiujitsu technique that involves shifting to a ground position and pulling the opponent down. Grounding oneself would mean granting the opponent an easy takedown point.
“That makes it a little difficult,” she says, “but I’m learning.”
Rescigno is the only girl on this year’s Warrior team. Most of the schools present at Saturday’s meet had at least one girl. High school girls have the option to wrestle only other girls, but Rescigno doesn’t always take it.
“My goal for the year is just to be better,” she says. “I want to get some more wins.”
